Clothes-drier.



PATENTED 11130.15, 1903.

R. N. WEST.

CLOTHES DRIER. APPLIUATXON FILED MAR. 27. L902.

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N0 MODEL PATENTED DEC. 15', 1903.

R. N. WEST.

CLOTHES DRIER. APPLIOATION FILED MAR. 27, 1902.

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N0 MODEL.

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UNITED STATES Patented December 15, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT NEWELL WEST, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO ADAMS LAUNDRY MACHINERY 00., NEW YORK.

OF TROY, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF CLOTHES-DRIER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 746,768, dated December 15, 1903.

Application filed March 27, 1902. $erial No. 100,298. (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, ROBERT NEWELL Wns'r, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Baltimore, State of Maryland, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes-Briers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in clothes-driers of that class in which the articles to be dried are carried through a suit-- of-a clothes-drying apparatus embodying my" Fig.2 is a plan view, partially invention. in section, on the line B B of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical sectional view on the line C O of Fig.1. Fig. 4 is adetail perspective view of one of the clothes holders or supports, showing the manner of attaching it to the endless carrier. Fig. 5 is a detail View of a stripper or device for automatically removing the clothes from the carrier after they have been dried.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates the drying-room. This may be of any suitable size and form, being preferably rectangular, as shown, and of such a height that a person may readily enter through the door 2 for the purpose of cleaning out the room or giving any necessary attention to the apparatus therein. As shown, it is preferably provided with double walls. An endless carrier is arranged to traverse the upper portion of the room 1, passing in through an inlet-opening 3 and out through a passage 4. Within the drying-room are arranged a suitable number of sprockets or guiding-wheels, about which the endless conveyor passes, said wheels being supported by transversely-extending supports 5, connected with the side walls of the drying-room by suitable brackets 6. Outside the drying-room the endless conveyor extends about similar guiding wheels or sprockets,

carried by a projecting frame 7, connectedat one end with the front wall of the dryingroom and having its opposite end supported from the ceiling of the room in which the l apparatus is placed by means of suitable hangers 8. y

As shown, I'preferably employ an endless carrier consisting of two parallel endless strands!) 9 of wire cable, and each of the guiding-Wheels above referred to consists of two members 1010. The guiding-wheels 1O 10' are arranged in the manner shown in Fig. 2, so that the endless conveyor moves in a circuitous path through the drying-room between the inlet-passage 3 and outlet-passage 4, whereby the articles supported thereby will be thoroughly dried during a single passage through the room;

The drying-room is heated by means of suitable steam-coils. As shown, there are four of these coils, two of them, 11 12, being arranged along the side walls of the drying room,while a third, 13, extends across the rear wall, and a fourth one, 14, extends from said rear coil forwardly between the side coils aforesaid. Steam is supplied from any suitable source to these coils, and each of them has suitable regulating or controlling valves 15, by means of which the admission of steam to' any particular coil can be controlled. This is quite an important feature, because it enables either of the coils 'to be disconnected, if, for instance, it becomes damaged, without rendering the entire apparatus inoperative. j

, Within the drying-room, above the heatingcoils and the endless conveyor, are arranged suitable fans 16 for causing a circulation of air within the room,'which assists materially in drying the clothes. As shown, I provide two of these fans or air-circulating devices, they being carried at the lower ends of vertical shafts 17, which are suspended from above and extend through the upper Wall of the drying-room. Power is supplied to said fans and tea shaft 18 for driving the endless carrier from a shaft 19, which is driven from any suitable driving mechanism through a belt 20. r

The articles to be dried are supported by holders attached at suitable intervals to the cables 9 9' of the'endless carrier. As shown in Fig. 4, each of said holders consists of a shank or stem 21, having at its lower end oppositely-extending arms 22 23, the free .ends of which are bent upwardly, as at 24:, and are provided with adjustable fingers 25, on which the articles to be dried can be hung. The arms 22 23 do not extend in the same transverse plane, the former being connected with the shank or stem 21 by a bent section 26, while the arm 23 extends directly out from said shank. By this construction contact between articles supported by the fingers 25 of a holder is prevented. This is of great importance, especially where varicolored articles are being dried. If the supporting-fingers 25 were directly opposite each other, the articles supported thereby might contact while damp, and thereby the color of one would be transferred to the other, which is of course objectionable.

In one face of the upper end of the stem or shank 21 are provided suitable grooves for receiving the wire cables 9 9, and a clamping-block 27, having corresponding grooves, is connected with said stem by means of a bolt 28. By means of this block and bolt the article holder or support can be readily attached tothe endless carrier at any suitable point, and the positions of the holders or supports relative to each other can be varied as desired.

Each pair of guiding-wheels 1O is carried by a short vertical shaft 29, mounted in suitable ball-bearings 30 on the cross-bars 5.

Said Wheels 10 10 are spaced or separated slightly by suitable hubs, so that while the portions of the body 21 of the article-supports enter the notches in the peripheries of said wheels the enlarged portion of said body about the connecting-bolt 28 will pass between said wheels and offer no obstruction to the movement of the conveyer.

The manner of using the apparatus as above described may be briefly stated as follows: Articles to be dried are hung upon the fingers of the holders on the endless carrier as they approach the inlet-passage 3 of the drying-room. They are carried in a circuitous path at a relatively slow speed through said room and exposed to the action of air heated by the steam-coils therein and circulated by the fans 16, so that before they reach the outlet-passage 4 they have become thoroughly dried. In order that the articles may be antomatically removed from the endless carrier after leaving the drying-room, Ihave provided the devicesillustrated in detail in Fig. 5. Re ferring to this figure, 30 designates a stripper which is pivotally supported from a bracket 31 on the frame 7. This stripper consists of two downwardly-extending arms, the lower free ends of each of which is provided with a passage 32 of sufi'icient size to permit the upturned ends 24 and fingers 25 of the holders to pass freely therethrough, but not large enough to allow the articles on said fingers to pass. Therefore as the endless carrier is advanced the articles will be successively pushed or stripped from the fingers 25 and fall into a suitable receptacle provided for them. The stripper is pivotally supported and normally held in a substantially vertical position by means of a leaf-spring 33 or other suitable means in order that if for any reason one of the clothes 7 holders should become disarranged and not pass said stripper freely the latter can rock about its pivot, so as to clear the upturned ends 24 of the holder and prevent damage to the conveyer.

To maintain the cables 9 9 of the endless conveyer in the desired taut condition, I provide tension means for adjusting theshafts 34 of the outer guide-wheels 10 10'. As shown most clearly in Fig. 1', these shafts are mount- .ed in suitable bearings on the frame 7 in such manner as to be capable of a limited adjustment toward and from the drying-room. This adjustment is efiected by means of threaded tension-rods 35 and-thumb-nuts 36. Coiled springs 37 are arranged about said'tensionrods between the shafts 34 and a rear bearing 38,which springs are normally compressed, so that they will automatically act to take up any slight slack in the cables that may occur. It will be seen that the two members of the stripper extend down on opposite sides of the conveyer.

It will be seen that by employing two cables I insure that the clothes-support will be maintained in proper position to hold the articles applied thereto in a vertical position. A single cable could not be satisfactorily employed, because of its tendency to twistwhen in motion, which would soon destroy the mechanism.

An opening 40 is provided at the bottom of IIO carrier and two laterally-projecting arms one of which extends directly out from said body and the other of which is connected at its inner end with said body by a section extending substantially at right angles to the outer section of said arm and to the other arm.

2. In a drier, the combination with a drying-room, of an endless carrier adapted to travel within said room and consisting of two parallel cables arranged one above the other, and a series of supports for the articles to be dried secured to said cables.

3. In a clothes-drier, the combination with a drying-room, of an endless-cable carrier extending around suitable guide-wheels within or supports for the articles to be dried each comprising a stem or body having at its lower end oppositely-extending arms and near its upper end grooves to receive the cables, and clamping-blocks adjnstably connected to said holders and coacting with the grooves therein -to secure the holders in position on'the ca-' bles.

6. In a drier, the combination with a drying-room, of an endless carrier adapted to move horizontally within the drying-room, and a holder for articles to be dried consisting of a body depending from the endless carrier and provided atits lower end with later ally-extending arms, and a finger arranged at the free end of each of said arms and extending at right angles to said arm.

notched wheels mounted to turn about verti-' cal axes near the top of said room, said wheels being arranged in pairs, the members of each pair turning about the same axis, similar guide-wheels arranged outside of the dryingroom, two parallel, endless, cables extending about and supported by said guide-wheels, said cables extending through suitable passages in a side wall of the drying-room, and a series of depending holders or hangers for the articles to be dried secured to said cables.

8. In a drier, the combination of a dryingroom, an endless carrier arranged to move into and from said dryingroom and provided with a series of holders for articles to be dried, a stripper mounted to rock about an axis transverse to the direction of movement of the carrier, the free end of said stripper extendin g into the path of articles supported by the carrier after leaving the drying-room, and means for normally holding the stripper in this position.

9. In a clothes-drier, the combination of a drying-room, an endless carrier adapted to travel within said room and provided with a series of supports for articles to be dried, said supports projecting from their connection with the carrier in a direction opposite that in which the carrier moves, and a stripper arranged to force articles rearwardly from said supports. I

10. In a clothes-drier, the combination of a drying-room, an endless carrier arranged to travel within said room, and having a series of rearwardlyextending supports for articles to be dried, and a stripper having a slot through which said article-supports successively pass, the sides of said slot preventing the passage of articles carried by said supports.

11. A traveling conveyer having rearwardly-extending fingers, a stationary stripper device supported in close proximity to the path of travel of said fingers, and adapted to be encountered by said fingers in their travel.

12. A traveling conveyer having rearwardly-extending fingers, a stationary stripper device supported in close proximity to the path of travel of said fingers, and embodying a recess through which the fingers pass in the travel of the conveyer.

13. In 'a drying apparatus for a laundry, in combination with a traveling conveyer and a rearwardly-extending finger carried by said con veyer, a stripper device having two article-engaging members arranged on opposite sides of a vertical line extending through said finger and adapted to codperate in engaging an-article supported on said finger, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT NEWELL WEST. Witnesses:

CHARLES H. MILLIKIN, SADIE O. REINHARD. 

